Manchester City FC vs. Everton FC

City v Everton

A real six pointer game at the right end of the table see these two north west teams come head to head in this Euro place battle which will see the victor stamp their belief on that coveted fourth or fifth place.

Vital Quotes:

Michael Ball talks about Everton and this year's away game: "We weren`t at the top of our form and got beat 1-0; we really thought we could have left with at least a point. "But we`ve got a chance now at our place, where the pitch is a bit bigger, play the way we want to play and get at them early doors and come away with the points. "David Moyes has got them playing a style of football that has been successful for them. "With Yakubu going there he looks a bit of a danger and fresh from three goals in Europe he`s going to be a handful. "We just need to worry about our performance and ourselves though. They`ve got to come to us and we`ll be at them from the whistle and they`ve got to stop our players. "Sven Goran Eriksson then talks about Everton: 'I saw Everton on Thursday, they are playing good football, scoring six goals and it will be a very difficult game. David Moyes has been doing a great job with that club, playing in Europe. They have played Champions League as well, which was a fantastic achievement.' 'Everton are having an excellent season and are currently sitting, where they deserve to be in 4th place. I can imagine how pleasing it must be for Everton fans not only to have watched such great football this season, but also to be above their Merseyside rivals at this stage of the campaign'

Manchester City FC Team News:

City are close to full-strength with Elano and Vedran Corluka both available again after serving suspensions. Midfielder Michael Johnson is pushing for a place in the side after returning to training following a two-month lay-off. Valeri Bojinov is missing as he continues his recovery from a serious knee injury. City also have the services of Felipe Caicedo to call on to help bolster the renewed strikeforce that includes the impressive Benjani.

Player to watch: Martin Petrov

If he can reproduce his form from the derby a week last Sunday, Hibbert or Neville will be given the big run around.

Everton FC Team News:

Everton boss David Moyes is set to recall Joseph Yobo to his starting line-up after resting him for the midweek Uefa Cup win over Brann. Mikel Arteta is expected to shake off a groin problem to take his place in midfield with Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Andy Johnson hoping to start together in attack.

Player to watch: Tim Cahill

He has gone eight games without a goal and his ability to ghost into the box cannot be underestimated.

Match Facts & Stats

Everton's record at City is not that great and there has yet to be a draw between the two sides in the premier league when City are at home. City also have one of the best home league records with only one of the big four winning here. Although Everton are on a strong run of six games unbeaten in the league and will want that to continue.

Ref Watch:

Rob Styles - how this man is still refereeing at this level is beyond me; but this is his second City game this season and he did do a fair job at West Ham in the cup.
This will be Everton's third game; both games they won, so maybe third time unlucky?

Match Prediction:

With City's squad now starting to swell with quality and a week's break; I just think that we will just have too much in our locker for Everton to cope with. City 2 - 0 Everton.

Next Fixtures:

Wigan at home next Saturday 1st March on Setanta with a 5:15pm kick off.

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You clearly can't read EvertonMike - it says If he plays like he did in the Derby - not like he played at your disgrace of a ground - it would take a lot better defender to stop him on his day than Hibbert!

What happened City.. are they that good ? we've got them on Sunday so I guess we'll see the need for us to beat them (although that's gonna be hard on their own patch) is even greater now .. they could soon pull away if we are not all careful ..PS told you Benjani wasn't a lone striker !!.. You must get Sven to listen you are wasting the guy !

EvertonMike... Bianchi , Mpenza, Vassell, but with Bojinov nearing a comeback from injury and new signings Caicedo, Castillo & Benjani we will have plenty of options over the next few weeks....city81 at least Fernandes doesn't give the ball away and his work rate is phenomenal he will be one of the stars of the Premiership over the next few seasons..

Our demise has coincided with the injury at the begining of December to Michael Johnson who had struck up the perfect partnership with Elano. There was talk that he might have played some part last night but they decided instead to give him a run out with the Reserves tonight, perhaps that was a good move for your sake as had he played the result could have been different.

city 81 .....I think JB said he will be away until after the Wigan game perhaps some of the other Editors can take his place.
STORAGEMATT if you beat them it will make it all very tight for that fourth place.

Alphie, if you take away the top three, this is what it used to be like in the old first division, very close, but we need to start scoring goals to improve our chances. I see that the reserves put in 4 past Evertons reserves, with Mpenza and Caicedo and El Diablo, what I cant find out is what formation did they play? if they played a 442 but how is that any good to the first team who only play 451 or 4411 both teams should play the same formation.

As Alphie suggests without Petrov we should be able to go 442, what we lack is good crosses into the box. In the Derby match the number of players into the box when attacking was excellent and I don't think we will miss Petrov that much. I understand that both Caicedo and Castillo can both play wide. Richards injury might explain a lot recently as he has not been at his best and may have been running with this injury for a while.

The line-up debate should be interesting I would go for Hart Corluka Onuoha Dunne Garrido Vassell Hamann Gelson Elano Benjani Caicedo and on the bench Isaksson Ball Ireland Johnson Castillo. My preference is for Onuoha in the centre with Charlie at RB although I would normally prefer him in the centre. I think for this game and whilst Micah is injured he will give us a bit more of an attack down the right.

Caicedo, Is look to me good player, alphie, You put a heavy names in the bench, I suggest play Garrido Place petrov & Caicedo start the game instead of Vassel, Must Irland play in his favorite place in the med right and to increase offensive force If Johnson is ready we do not need to Gelson there Hamann & Ireland they will covering his place.

Hamann is essential, there is no-one else there to tidy up, he may not look spectacular but does a good job. Elano off the boil at the moment. The reason that I put Charlie in the middle was that he is slower than Nedum and does not give away as many free kicks in dangerous the areas. Look out for french tony, he is good in the air.

city 81 Hoped you had a happy Kuwait National Day. Agree about Caicedo that is why I included him in my team. I don't think Johnson should be rushed back would prefer to see him on the bench for a couple of games.

Agree with you Buzz, I am very optimistic in the Saturday match, We have a strong team but our problem we have no stability in the squad, and about tony I hope he never forget his day in Man City, Please TONY :)

alphieblues, I am was happy in the Morning but I sleep sad in Night, after we had beating from Everton, And about Caicedo he give a good profiles, Maybe he come like yakubu in the future, That will be clear in the next few games .

Same here City 81, I had really high hopes that we would beat Everton, but I think the break for us was too long without a match. If we had played them 5 days later it would have been a different story, but thats football and that why we are City fans because we never know whats coming. I hope that Frank can finally put his accusers down and get on with his life. The Trial starts 12 th march. good luck Frank.

If Frank is acquitted, he should then get his money back and maybe he will be able to put some more money into the club for players, but I take his point that if you make City a household name, then you will make money commercially. I have the greatest respect for MANure in this regard to selling the club all over the world, which makes them millions. If we do get to those dizzy heights can we buy our ground back and increase the stadium size?

Hey Buzz the ground comment is a relevent one. There could be two schools of thought on this, 1. Would Frank want to go into property ownership and 2. Would the Council want to sell ?. Either way if we reach the dizzy heights I am sure the stadium capacity would be increased. The design was made in such a way that it could be easily converted into a 60,000 capacity. The big question is would that be needed next year or the year after !!!

About the stadium I saw in many game many places empty, I think avrege attend fans ranges between 65% ~ 75%, Except some few games, But the positive thing to make the stadium more large is host the national team and benefit from the proceeds of the match, Becouse what happen now that if FA want the national team play in Manchester he preferd stadium Old traford becouse is more large than our .

City 81 it is more like 80 - 90%. The awat team are supplied with a minimum amount of tickets which are not always sold out. Any returned tickets cannot be sold to our fans because of the segregation of fans. The gates have been getting better recently, but because of the times and days that Television demands, it is not always possible fot those fans who live miles away from COMS to get there because of the lack of good Public Transport to and from the ground.

Alphie, I don't know if we have to pay community tax at the ground, it maybe included in the council rent. Seriously though it depends on how much we pay to the council and whether owing the ground would get us more assets. The rent would increase if capacity went up, I just feel it would make sense to buy it outright along with other things that were sold off by Mr Wardle.

Buzz, The rent we pay is 50% of the gate over and above the 32,000 average we had at Maine Road so the rent is variable game by game. It would therefore remain to see if they would prefer to sell it or continue with a regular income. It probably wouldn't make any difference as the likes of AC Milan do not own their own ground.

Thanks Alphie, Todays line up should be interesting. We need more attacking options and I think 451 does not do that. If he does go 442 he may rest Hamann and go Ireland Elano Johnson Castillo(Garrido) with Vassell and Benjani.

If you supply the balls into the box thats where your stikers have the chance, ours tend to be on the half way line. It was only at the Derby that we got men into the box and there were some delightful balls. We had more possession against Everton but unlike them we created nothing. I am sure that next season Svennis will know what he needs and stands a better chance of getting the players than he did in January. Next season should be just as good as this one, if not better.

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